The Bears signed all seven of their 2020 draft picks for four-year contracts on Tuesday. The group is made up of the following players:
Round 2 (43): TE Cole Kmet, Notre Dame
Round 2 (50): CB Jaylon Johnson, Utah
Round 5 (155): OLB Trevis Gipson, Tulsa
Round 5 (163): CB Kindle Vildor, Georgia Southern
Round 5 (173): WR Darnell Mooney, Tulane
Round 7 (226): OL Arlington Hambright, Colorado
Round 7 (227): OL Lachavious Simmons, Tennessee State
The following is an overview of each player.
Kmet was a three year contributor to Notre Dame. He emerged as a playmaker last season, setting career highs in all receiving categories with 43 receptions, 515 yards and six touchdowns despite missing the first three games with a broken collarbone.
An avid Bears fan who grew up in Lake Barrington, Kmet played soccer and baseball at St. Viator High School in Arlington Heights. His father, Frank, was a Bears practice lineman in 1993 and is also from the Chicago area, attending Hersey High School in Arlington Heights.
Johnson has been selected twice to the All-Pac 12 first team in Utah, where he has played 38 games with 29 starts over the past three seasons and recorded 102 tackles, seven interceptions – two of which he returned for touchdowns – 21 assists and a sack.
The best year for the 6-footer, 195-pounder was 2018 when he set career highs with 41 tackles and four interceptions. Last season, Johnson won second-team All-America honors. He has started 13 games, placing third in the Pac-12 with 11 pass breakages at the top of the team.
Gipson was a two-year starter at Tulsa, where he won first-team All-American Athletic Conference honors last year as a senior after setting career highs with 49 tackles, eight sacks and 15. tackles against loss. As a junior, he recorded 46 tackles, four sacks and nine defeat tackles. Gipson forced eight fumbles during his college career, ranking second in the country with five in 2018.
The Bears selected Gipson in the fifth round with a pick they acquired in a trade with the Vikings in exchange for a fourth-round pick in 2021.
Vildor started his last two and a half seasons at Georgia Southern, where he was named Sun Belt Conference first team last year as a senior after recording 27 tackles, three loss tackles, two interceptions and six breakouts. passes.
As a junior in 2018, Vildor started all 13 games and was named All-American Second Team Player and Sun Belt Player of the Year by Pro Football Focus after compiling 42 tackles, 4.5 tackles lost and four interceptions at the top of the team. and 11 pass breaks.
A four-year old at Tulane, Mooney played 49 games and caught 151 passes for 2,529 yards and 19 touchdowns with a long reception of 86 yards. He had a junior breakout season in 2018, catching 48 passes for 993 yards and eight touchdowns. He followed last year with 45 receptions for 670 yards and five touchdowns.
Mooney ran a 4.38 in the 40 at the NFL Combine, tied for fifth among all prospects. He was not surprised with his time.
The Bears selected Mooney with a fifth-round pick they got with a seventh-round player from the Eagles in exchange for two picks in the sixth round and one in the seventh.
Last season, as a graduate student in Colorado, Hambright started all 12 games at left tackle and was named All-Pac 12 Honorable Mention by league coaches. The 6-4 and 300-pounder transferred to Colorado after graduating from Oklahoma state last May.
Hambright began his college career at Garden City Community College in Kansas before enrolling at Oklahoma State, where he made a red shirt in 2017. In 2018, he started the first five games before sustaining an injury that sidelined him until he returned to the Liberty Bowl.
Simmons played in every offensive position except center for four seasons at Tennessee State, appearing in 41 games. On a post-draft media conference call, the 6-5, 315-pounder described himself as a “bloody guy on the court.”
